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OLYMPICS
Aug 4, 2016

Baseball set for return as IOC approves five sports for Tokyo Olympics

Japan will aim to win Olympic baseball gold on home soil after the sport was formally approved for inclusion at the 2020 Tokyo Games along with four other events on Wednesday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 3, 2016

'Shin Godzilla': The metaphorical monster returns

Watching "Shin Godzilla," Toho's reboot of its signature monster series, I couldn't help feeling sorry for the non-Japanese fans forced to read a blizzard of subtitles for this extremely talky and densely populated film, with a break every 10 minutes or so for Godzilla rampages — the real reason they...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 2, 2016

'A Feverish Era: Art Informel and the Expansion of Japanese Artistic Expression in the 1950s and '60s'

July 29-Sept. 11
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 2, 2016

Refusal to nominate Rudd betrays Turnbull's weakness

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's rejection of Kevin Rudd's quest to lead the U.N. is a sorry reminder of the creeping U.S.-style partisanship of Australian politics.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 2, 2016

From Tokyo to Fuji Rock to Ulaanbaatar, every crowd is different for Roth Bart Baron

When the power cut out during Roth Bart Baron's debut Fuji Rock performance last month, its members knew exactly how to improvise.
Japan Times
WORLD
Aug 2, 2016

Pokemon mania is taking over Russia, and the Kremlin is nervous

More than a million people in Moscow are playing "Pokemon Go," the mobile game that's dominating download charts in three dozen countries. The number is especially impressive because the game isn't supposed to be available in Russia.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Aug 1, 2016

Oozing dim sum buns delight diners in Hong Kong

At Dim Sum Icon in Hong Kong, diners are encouraged to play with their food.
JAPAN / Politics
Aug 1, 2016

Former environment minister Yuriko Koike wins landslide election as Tokyo's first female governor

Former environment minister Yuriko Koike of the Liberal Democratic Party was elected Tokyo governor Sunday, winning a landslide victory to become the capital’s first female leader.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 30, 2016

Sayaka Murata and the art of neutrality

When 36-year-old Sayaka Murata recently won the prestigious Akutagawa Prize for literature, the media latched onto the author's background rather than the novel itself. Murata continues to work part-time as a convenience store clerk, and gains inspiration for characters and plots from her work environment....
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS
Jul 30, 2016

Ex-Wolverines set for Japan debut

Like most other American players, quarterback Devin Gardner and wide receiver Jeremy Gallon had no idea that football was even played there.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jul 29, 2016

'Kidnap Tour'; 'Takeshi's How to Look at Japan'; Y! Mobile

Now that school is out summer is officially here, and NHK celebrates with a dramatization of Mitsuyo Tsunoda's novel, "Kidnap Tour" (NHK-G, Tues., 7:30 p.m.).
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 29, 2016

New Delhi's imperative after the South China Sea ruling

The South China Sea issue gives India has an opportunity to underscore its credentials as a responsible global power.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 29, 2016

A brutal majority in Kashmir and elsewhere

The rise of a rabid majoritarianism is part of a larger rejection of politics based on reason and dialogue.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / NATURE'S PANTRY
Jul 29, 2016

'Kioke': The secret ingredient of soy sauce

Shodoshima, the largest island in the Seto Inland Sea, is not only covered in thousands of olive trees, it also holds half of Japan's remaining wooden soy sauce barrels. Though the island has produced olive oil for about 115 years, soy sauce has been made here for centuries — and has weathered many...
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Jul 29, 2016

Race relations in spotlight in Canada as Montreal cop convicted in teen's shooting death caught on video

A six-year prison sentence for a policeman in the shooting death of a teenager three years ago was a rare conviction in Canada, where activists say officers too often get off easy in brutality cases.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jul 29, 2016

Islamic State video of church attacker Paris was tipped off to urges all Muslims to destroy France

Islamic State's affiliated news agency Amaq on Thursday released a video purportedly showing one of the two men who attacked a church in northern France this week urging all Muslims to destroy the country.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Jul 28, 2016

1964 Tokyo Olympian set for induction into Small College Basketball Hall of Fame

Lucious "Luke" Jackson, a member of the United States' gold medal-winning men's basketball team at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, is one of 11 players who will be inducted into the inaugural class of the Small College Basketball Hall of Fame on Nov. 17.
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Jul 28, 2016

German police raid mosque and apartments in crackdown on Salafists

German police have searched a mosque and eight apartments in Hildesheim that are believed to be a hotbed of a radical Salafist community, the interior minister of the northern state of Lower Saxony said on Thursday.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jul 28, 2016

Turkey axes 40% of military brass, shuts 131 media outlets as post-coup purge continues

Turkey on Wednesday deepened a crackdown on suspected followers of a U.S.-based cleric it blames for a failed coup, dismissing nearly 1,700 military personnel and shutting 131 media outlets, moves that may spark more concern among its Western allies.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jul 26, 2016

'Dragon Quest' show pulls its audiences into the action

For gamers and lovers of sheer theatrical spectacle alike, the summer's hottest ticket seems sure to be for "Dragon Quest Live Spectacle Tour," whose 40 shows nationwide are set to be attended by some 400,000 people — with everyone receiving a wristband enabling them to influence the onstage action....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jul 26, 2016

Butoh for kids has fun with 'birthday suit' tale

"Gloomy," "eerie," "vulgar," "avant-garde" and "conceptual" are adjectives often used to describe butoh, the genre of Japanese modern dance started in 1959 by Tatsumi Hishikata and Kazuo Ohno in which performers usually paint their near-naked bodies white.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jul 26, 2016

The Kabukiza's special August season of short plays looks set to be a scorcher

Kabuki never used to be performed in August at the Kabukiza Theatre in Tokyo, but in 1990 two of its late, great actors, Nakamura Kanzaburo XVIII and Bando Mitsugoro X, instigated the staging of short programs during that sweltering month to help expand the audience.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 26, 2016

There are no-go zones even Pokemon monsters won't enter: Japan's nuclear facilities

'Pokemon Go' monsters have invaded Japan, including the Prime Minister's Office. But they are not allowed in Tepco's nuclear plants.

Longform

After the asset-price bubble crash of the early 1990s, employment at a Japanese company was no longer necessarily for life. As a result, a new generation is less willing to endure a toxic work culture —life’s too short, after all.
How Japan's youth are slowly changing the country's work ethic